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Firsthand and Secondhand is a free printable Grade 4 English worksheet on telling the two kinds of account apart, aligned to Common Core standard RI.4.6. It prints 8 questions with an answer key on its own sheet of paper, in 25 versions that each ask different questions, so no two pupils in the class work from the same page. Print it from the browser or download it as a PDF — no account, no email.

Set 11 of 25 · the same problems every time you open this link.

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Set 1 has all 25 in a single PDF. All 25 sets ask different questions.

Firsthand and Secondhand

RI.4.6

NameDate

Tick the right answer.

1.Which account would you use to know what the night was like?
  • A.Neither
  • B.The secondhand report
  • C.The firsthand diary
2.Why might two accounts of one event disagree?
  • A.One of them must be lying
  • B.Accounts are always identical
  • C.Each saw a different part and thought different things mattered
3.What can a firsthand account give that a secondhand one usually cannot?
  • A.What it felt like to be there
  • B.Accurate totals
  • C.A balanced overview
4.Should a historian use only one kind of account?
  • A.Yes, secondhand only
  • B.Yes, firsthand only
  • C.No — each supplies what the other cannot
5.Which is most likely to be firsthand?
  • A.A diary entry written that night
  • B.A textbook chapter
  • C.An encyclopaedia article
6.Which is most likely to be secondhand?
  • A.A photograph taken at the time
  • B.A report written years later from records
  • C.A letter written the same week
7.A firsthand account says "I was the one who said it was nothing." What does the "I" tell you?
  • A.The writer was involved in the events
  • B.The account is fiction
  • C.The writer is guessing
8.Which account would you use to find out how many houses flooded?
  • A.The secondhand report, which gives totals
  • B.Neither
  • C.The diary, which gives one house

LessonPrint · RI.4.6 · Set 11 · free to copy for classroom use

Answer key — Firsthand and Secondhand

Set 11. Prints on its own sheet.

  1. 1.The firsthand diary
  2. 2.Each saw a different part and thought different things mattered
  3. 3.What it felt like to be there
  4. 4.No — each supplies what the other cannot
  5. 5.A diary entry written that night
  6. 6.A report written years later from records
  7. 7.The writer was involved in the events
  8. 8.The secondhand report, which gives totals

More practice for RI.4.6

Compare an eyewitness account with a second-hand one.

Teaching this next? Firsthand and Secondhand Accounts is the 40-minute plan for it, with the misconceptions to expect.

All Grade 4 worksheets

Last reviewed 2026-09-05. Aligned to RI.4.6 of the Common Core State Standards for English language arts.